SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Digital Commons @ ESF City Wild Landscape Architecture Spring 2014 Rewilding the European Landscape: An Unconventional Approach to Land Management Rachelle McKnight Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.esf.edu/citywild Part of the Landscape Architecture Commons Recommended Citation McKnight, Rachelle, "Rewilding the European Landscape: An Unconventional Approach to Land Management" (2014). City Wild. 8. https://digitalcommons.esf.edu/citywild/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Landscape Architecture at Digital Commons @ ESF. It has been accepted for inclusion in City Wild by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ ESF. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Rachelle McKnight LSA 696-8 May 2, 2014 Rewilding the European Landscape An Unconventional Approach to Land Management Traditional land use in Europe has been on the decline since the end of World War II. Driven by social, physical, and economic factors, agricultural land abandonment has resulted in a decline of 17% of rural populations since 1961 (Navarro and Pereira 2012). Younger generations are moving into cities with the hope of finding competitive careers, while ageing populations stay in place with limited access to transportation infrastructure and economic opportunity. Over time, this migration has created a feedback loop, where the decline of commercial and public services in rural areas indirectly incentivizes relocation to more densely populated regions. In some cases farmers are too poor to leave their ancestral plots, but lack viable work options in the neighboring communities. As families separate in search of better economic opportunities, the cohesive fabric of farming communities unravels.